Q1.
Discuss and list down the various items of your state tableau. Make a poster or a model of it.
Answer
A tableau is a decorated truck or float that shows one state's life and culture in a single picture. The word for it in Hindi is jhanki. Look at the picture on page 78 — the children have made one out of a carton, with a mountain, a waterfall, small clay figures and toy animals on it.
Step 1 — Decide the theme. Pick one idea only, or the float becomes crowded. Examples: our harvest festival, our river, our handloom, our famous monument.
Step 2 — List the items to put on it. Use these six headings. Fill the last column with what is true for your own state.
| What to show | Example — Rajasthan | Example — Kerala | My state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landscape or landmark | Sand dunes and a fort wall | Backwaters and coconut palms | _______ |
| Traditional dress | Ghagra-choli and odhni; men in a colourful safa | Kasavu saree with a gold border; mundu | _______ |
| Dance or music | Ghoomar dancers; a nagara drum | Mohiniyattam; a chenda drum | _______ |
| Festival | Teej, Gangaur | Onam, with the boat race | _______ |
| Craft or work | Block printing, blue pottery | Coir making, houseboats | _______ |
| Food | Dal-baati-churma | Sadya served on a banana leaf | _______ |
Step 3 — Build the model.
- Take a shoebox or a carton. Turn it on its side. This is the truck bed.
- Cut four wheels from a thick card and fix them with split pins or glue.
- Paint a backdrop on a card and stand it at the back — hills, a river, a temple.
- Make the figures from clay, matchsticks, cloth scraps and bottle caps. Keep them small.
- Put the tallest thing at the back and the smallest in front, so nothing is hidden.
- Write your state's name in big letters on the side, in your own language and in English.
Step 4 — Say it in one line. Every good tableau has one sentence that explains it. For example: Odisha — the land of the Sun Temple and the Konark wheel.
Why tableaux are used: A float is faster than a speech. In the few seconds a tableau takes to pass, a watcher sees a state's clothes, dance, work and festival all together, and remembers them as one picture.
Use waste: Old cartons, newspaper for papier-mâché, bottle caps for wheels, ice-cream sticks for fences, cloth scraps for clothes. Nothing new needs to be bought.